Mr Smiths / Bus Bar / Drokiweeny, Brazil Street

Mr Smiths, Brazil Street, 1973. (c) Manchester Beat [1].

Mr Smiths contained a bar called the Bus Bar, disco (called Drokiweeny for a few years in the late 1960s), cabaret room and even a casino.  In the '60s and early '70s the footballers George Best and Mike Summerbee would often be seen propping the bar up and showing off in here after a match on Saturday nights.  The flyer below suggests that Mr Smiths may have been the birthplace of the Electric Circus, which more famously ended up as the venue in Collyhurst where bands such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and Joy Division starred in the '70s.

Mr Smiths Electric Circus flyer. (c) rs129 at Manchester and District Music Archive [2].

1. www.manchesterbeat.com/venues/manchester_cbd/mrsmiths/mrsmiths.php.
2. www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showartefact.php?vid=79.